TTC union launching campaign to highlight its unseen members

A week after the province opted to privatize maintenance work along the city’s planned light-rail network, transit union boss Bob Kinnear unveiled a new ad campaign to laud TTC workers who maintain Toronto’s existing system.

Mr. Kinnear also used the Tuesday news conference to blast the TTC board’s recent decision to contract out more than 100 bus cleaning and servicing jobs, a move that sparked furious opposition among transit workers.

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“With one stroke of the pen, they’ve completely compromised the integrity and safety of the system by allowing people to come onto the system that aren’t their employees,” said Mr. Kinnear, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113. “Toronto transit maintenance workers are an asset to this city, not a liability.”

The million-dollar ad campaign was initially slated for rollout last month, but was postponed after the death of TTC track and tunnel foreman Peter Pavlovski, who was hit by a service train near Yorkdale station.

The campaign, funded entirely by Local 113 members, aims to highlight TTC workers who are “seldom, if ever” seen by the public they serve.

The print ads feature transit workers doing various maintenance jobs, with captions such as: “We cleaned every corner of the bus you are on right now.”

The ad campaign comes less than two weeks after the union declared war on TTC management over its recent outsourcing move — which the city estimates will save $4.3-million annually — and one week after provincial transit agency Metrolinx announced that while the TTC will operate the city’s four new LRT lines, a private company will maintain them.

TTC spokesman Brad Ross pointed out that no unionized employees would be laid off when the city privatizes bus cleaning and servicing positions, which were deemed as “nonessential” in an internal review, meaning they could be contracted out.